Presently, many business, real estate, and professional people utilize preprinted rate tables to assist in calculating loan payments, the amount to lend or borrow, or compare various offers from different financial institutions. On the other hand, many business, real estate and professional people utilize financial calculators to solve these various problems.
The advantage in utilizing the rate tables is the low cost of obtaining these rate tables from the financial institutions. However, there are also disadvantages associated with these rate tables. One disadvantage associated with the rate table is the consumption of time needed to obtain the information from the rate table. For example, to find the payment for a loan for a certain interest rate and payout period, one has to look up on the rate table for the payment associated the known interest rate and payout period and multiply the amount found in the rate table by the actual amount of the loan and divide this product by a thousand to get the actual monthly payment. Another disadvantage is that the rate tables are not precise because one rate table cannot possibly list all the possible combinations of rates and payout periods that a user may desire and thus, a user cannot always get the exact answer desired.
To overcome these disadvantages of the rate tables, financial calculators have been developed. However, these financial calculators have various disadvantages. One of the disadvantages is that the present financial calculators are difficult to use because these financial calculators require the user to modify the desired financial problem to meet the various specifications of the financial calculator and planner. To modify the problem to the specifics of the financial calculator and planner, the user usually has to go through a lengthy period of training before the actual use of the calculator. Moreover, the present financial calculators only display one variable of the problem at a time, thereby causing the user to possibly lose track of which variables of the problem have already been entered. Because these financial calculators do not display all the variables for the particular problem on the screen at one time, the user of the financial calculator and planner usually has to write down the various variables as the numerical information is being entered upon the financial calculator and planner, thereby also requiring the user to have a writing utensil and recording medium along with the financial calculator and planner.